Sunday 1st March
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Report written by Kash
On their walk between the second and third mission of the day in Hounslow, Sevan and Kash heard loud Bollywood beats and instantly got sidetracked to check what was going on. The sports field just off the High Street was full of stalls and people with faces covered in vividly coloured powder. It was the Holi festival, celebrating the arrival of spring and the triumph of good over evil!
The spring was on - the GoodGymers witnessed it when running through the roads with blossoming trees. The triumph of good was due to come with their final good deed of the day. The mission was for Ms I, who had requested moving a settee and a bed. Little did Sevan and Kash know that, in practice, the lady wanted to tidy up behind two pieces of furniture - that's why she needed help shifting things around.
The GoodGymers entered a flat, which Ms I described as congested. There was one-way traffic in most passages between the things Ms I had accumulated by accepting items that her friends had been bringing her after she moved in, frequent trips to charity shops, and buying goods like toothpaste in bulk when on offer.
To move the sofa, Sevan and Kash first had to clear the pile of things leaning against the settee. Moving boxes of medicines and supplements, craft materials, magazines and carrier bags resulted in bags of items sorted by category and even one sack of recycling and one of rubbish. The GoodGymers also recovered a futuristic-looking Dyson hoover, which Ms I hardly used since she bought it - maybe because it was not easily accessible?
It was a bargain: £10 in a charity shop. But then I had to hire a taxi to get it home, which wasn't as much of a bargain anymore!" - Ms I.
To ensure the value for money, the hoover had to be in operation, but first needed to be rearranged - like a Transformer - into something that could suck dirt and dust from narrow spaces. Thanks to teamwork, the trio worked out how to make the contraption work for them. While Sevan, who cleverly took his glasses with him on a mission, was helping Ms I read the expiry dates on the medicines, Kash, who left her specs at home (typical), was making the space behind the sofa spotless.
When the GoodGymers had just a few minutes left, Ms I requested a similar operation to be performed in the bedroom, behind the bed. Sevan and Kash speed-tidied the space and were ready for their 6.5 km run back to Ealing. What a GoodGymer wouldn't do when the triumphs of good over evil and hoover over dust are at stake?
